Highlights from Dabo Swinney weekly press conference

CLEMSON – Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said the Auburn Tigers, the defending national champions and a team with a 17-game winning streak, do whatever it takes to win.

“They just find a way to win. That is what winning does,” Swinney said during his press conference Tuesday morning in the WestZone. “When you do that, a belief comes about. A swagger. A confidence, and you just believe you are going to make a play. I was part of a 20-game win streak at Alabama and you just expect to win. That is a tough nut to crack. The stakes are a little higher this week. Tough out for us this week. We have to play well. They are an opportunistic team. They have some unusual things happen.”

“They always seem to be in the right place at the right time. It's not often you get the National Champion at your place. It doesn't happen often. They are certainly the champions and they deserve that. We get our shot this week. Defensively for us we have to play with a lot of poise. That's very important in this game. We have to stop the run. Auburn likes to run the football and if we can stop the run that gives us an advantage. We have to tackle better than we have the last couple of weeks.”

winney said Auburn quarterback Barrett Trotter is a “winner.”

“I've watched Barrett Trotter for a long time. He's a winner,” Swinney said. “And he's his own guy. He's not Cam Newton. He's Barrett Trotter. We need to affect him and get after him. We need to create turnovers. One of the things we've done a really good job of in these first two games is win the turnover margin. That's one of the reasons we are 2-0.”

Other notes from the press conference with Swinney and the players:

Swinney on big plays

“Auburn has lived off of big plays. That goes back to knowing who is on the field and what they do out of those sets. We've got to have a great week of film study and preparation and then execution on game day. “
On whether the game is a statement game

“It's an opportunity for momentum. If you look at my first year, the win at Miami was a big win that created momentum for us. Then we came back and beat Florida State and N.C. State and Virginia and we won the division. That win created momentum. It's early and we don't know a lot about this team yet. The only way you find out is to go play. We play the longest winning streak in the country and the national champions. Statement game? I don't know if I'd say that. We won't cancel the season if we win it or lose it. We have to focus on playing well. Executing at a high level and just trying to win this game.”

On playing more physical in practice this week

“We will get after it today and tomorrow physically. Our guys are confident and they should be. We match up well with these guys. I thought we did last year. We had a lot of mental errors and missed a couple of critical opportunities to put the game away and they hit us on a double move for a long touchdown and we lost on a kick in overtime. We've got put it all together. We have to execute.”

On whether entire team is not physical enough

“There's not a problem. We just have to do it. We did some good things against Troy and Wofford we just aren't where we need to be. Sometimes we put a big blanket statement out there and throw everybody under the bus. We've got guys that are doing a really good job but we have to have more of it consistently. I've seen us do it. That's my point. We have video evidence. I promise you if you ask Auburn who were the top three teams we played last year we'll be in the answer. Saw [Auburn head coach] Chizik last year and he said that we were the most physical team we played. “We have to do it every play. We are a little it of a work in progress. It's new. We are doing some different things in some areas and there's been a little bit of hesitation. But at the end of the day we've had 900 something yards of offense. So it ain't all bad. We are leaving a lot of meat on the bone. That's the frustrating thing as a coach. Just things like that - and we are trying to push these guys. Coaches know what's coming. We know we have to play better to beat Auburn or Florida State or Virginia Tech. We don't want anybody to have a comfort zone. “

On whether Auburn has same offense as last year

“They are the same offense, but they aren't going to call the same type of quarterback runs. As they went through the season last year, they involved Cam Newton more because they realized they had something special. That doesn't mean they won't do it this year. We have to be prepared for this guy to run the ball. He's an adequate runner and we didn't tackle the quarterback well last week. And then the scrambling - you would play great defense and he would scramble for 30 yards. That's just recruiting there. One guy doesn't make the tackle and he ran for 30 yards. But Trotter, he has the potential to be a very solid player for him. Gus [Malzahn] is doing some good things with him. Good thrower. But hopefully he has an off day Saturday. “

On relationship between Chad Morris and Gus Malzahn

“I didn't know Chad Morris at all and didn't know he knew Gus Malzahn. That was one of Chad Morris' references. Gus sent me a text yesterday saying we need to spot them seven points because he spoke for Chad. He was very helpful. I talked to Mike Sherman at Texas A&M. He was very helpful in making a decision on Chad. He was a great reference. “